Austin City Limits

The boys and I headed West on Friday to Austin for a quick overnight getaway. We were going to visit a dear friend of mine since college. Dayna lives very close to some super cool caverns in Austin and we had to go explore! Since Scot just got home from China Thursday night, this gave him the opportunity to recover from jet lag in a quiet environment so when we got home Saturday we would all be in a good mood.

The caves were incredible....the best part was paying the extra money for the Explorer tour where we got to separate from the group at the end, grab flashlight, and go exploring on our own. The boys LOVED this and it didn't take long for them to find a sweet little bat on a particularly low part of the caves for an up close and personal look. It was a lot of "How sweet" and "He's looking at me" while my statements were more like, "At the first sign of flight, I am out of here and you guys are on your own!".

Dayna and I had both read Stephanie Myer's "The Host" this summer so we were reliving the book the entire time we were in the caves. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.....one of my favorite reads of the summer!!

Dinner that night was at the Hula Hut on Lake Austin. Yum, Yum, Yum!! An hour and a half wait was totally worth it to eat out on the pier over the Lake. By this picture you can tell that N was not happy with the amount of food he got and was asking for seconds. Miss Dayna saved the day with the promise of cookies when we got home! Dayna, I'm still thinking about your Tubular Taco......very soon we'll be visiting Hula Hut again! Thank you so much for a wonderful time and for your hospitality!

An added bonus of the weekend was getting to see some dear friends Saturday morning! My friend of 30 plus years, Christie, has a wonderful friend named Becca that I have heard about for a long time, but have never met. They used to be neighbors until Becca and her family moved to Austin a year or two ago. Because of blogs and Facebook, Becca and I have now become cyber friends......you've gotta love that!

Anyways, Becca and I were chatting on FB Thursday night and unbeknownst to me, Christie was headed to Austin for the weekend. We quickly devised a plan where the boys and I would stop by Becca's house and surprise Christie before we headed home to Houston. Becca, who just added to her crew two months ago with sweet Ian, was gracious enough to have my not-so-quiet boys and myself show up at 8 a.m. and add to the madness of a Saturday morning.

The surprise was everything I could have hoped it would be.....screaming, crying.....it was so much fun! I got to meet Becca and her family for the first time and she was as wonderful as I imagined she would be. It was a very fast hour and a half full of bacon cooking duty, rushed and unfinished conversations, baby holding, and lots of "I can't believe you are here" exclamations. It was not nearly enough time!

Christie, I loved seeing you even for a moment!

Becca, thank you for being so hospitable and gracious!